Everyone in my family was looking forward to the pasta dinner I was preparing. Since my mother and my aunt do not favor any dairy products, I rubbed the cream-based sauce out of my choice of sauces. I finally chose Bolognese sauce for my noodles because it had plenty of meat and vegetables in it, which made for a well-balanced dinner. Dinner has always been the most important meal in my family. The last meal before sleep is highly valued. I had hoped to prepare a dinner that was both delicious and nutritious.

The Bolognese sauce is a meat-based pasta sauce. It is one of the many “ragùs” in Italy. The ingredients of the ragù vary in different regions, having different combinations of meat and vegetables. Napoleon brought the French cuisine along with his army to Italy in 1796. Among the dishes he brought was the ragù. In French it was called ragout, which was a stew of meat or vegetables. Initially, ragù was not a sauce. Rather, it was served as a main dish. But later people began to spread the stew on toasted bread and it gradually became a sauce. Given the variety of ingredients in the Bolognese sauce, spaghetti Bolognese can be a very nutritious dish. The noodles provide the whole grain and carbohydrates; the meat provides protein; and the various vegetables help balance the diet. Bolognese sauce can be adapted to one’s taste easily. There are plenty of home recipes shared by netizens offering different versions of the Bolognese sauce. Despite all these variations, tomato remains the main ingredient. Tagliatelle Bolognese is now a common dish at home in Italy, although it was only for the aristocrats when it was first created.

One of the interesting things I have found about the dish is that Bolognese sauce is not often served with tagliatelle in the restaurants. When searching for “Bolognese” I discovered that the results returned by the search engine contained “spaghetti” instead of “tagliatelle”. It seems most of the time people just use spaghetti as the noodles for Bolognese sauce, and it has become a popular “Italian” dish! However, it is said that in Italy, the Bolognese sauce is only served with tagliatelle, tortellini or gnocchi. Perhaps when the Italian noodles were introduced to other countries, spaghetti fit best among all other noodles with the prototype of noodles in most people’s minds. They were probably the most available of all. Indeed, “spaghetti Bolognese” does sound Italian enough. The traditional noodle, Tagliatelle, originates in Emilia Romagna in the north of Italy. The humorist Augusto Majani invented a romantic story for it. He said the tagliatelle was invented by a chef who was inspired by the blond hair of the beautiful princess Lucrezia Borgia. The princess was passing through Bologna on her way to marry a Duke. He cut the traditional lasagna into stripes and it was named tagliatelle. Although the story is invented, it is truly as beautiful as any reader could expect from the origin of a traditional food. Besides, at least we can see from the story that Bolognese sauce and tagliatelle are closely related since Majani had the story take place in Bologna specifically. Tagliatelle undoubtedly matches well with Bolognese sauce. Italians do not even have to mention Bolognese sauce when ordering the noodles. Tagliatelle Bolognese in Italian is “tagliatelle al ragù”. Tagliatelle is broad and flat, which makes it hold the sauce perfectly. Fresh-made tagliatelle have a more al dente texture and absorb the flavor of the sauce well.

I could tell from the expressions of my family members that the dinner I cooked was successful. The noodles met the tastes of most of my family, except my Grandma- onion and garlic are unbearable to her (the two vegetables are almost present in every pasta sauce). So I was really happy that even she tasted some of my noodles. After all the ingredients were added, I let the sauce simmer for several hours to make it even tastier. Many of the stories shared by the netizens were about their grandmother spending the afternoon preparing the noodle dish. I looked around in the kitchen, trying to grab some atmosphere from the Italian grandma. Would she be feeling a sense of accomplishment as I did when the smell of the sauce rushed out into the room? Would she feel satisfied and proud following her traditional home recipes? What about the rest of the family? Were they helping her or perhaps she preferred no help? It suddenly occurred to me that at least there was one thing we had in common- we were both female. In Artusi’s book, he was writing for the “kind ladies” and “good housewives”, though he himself may have never touched the kitchen table. The same also existed in Chinese history. Most of the authors of recipe books and the chefs were men, while it was mostly women who cooked at home. I soon realized that this was probably because cooks and chefs are occupations. In the past women seldom had official jobs since their main work was inside the house. Cooking as an occupation is surely different from cooking for the family. The purpose of a job is to make a living while preparing meals at home is for the pleasure of the family or oneself, to show care and love. They yield different feelings. In one story in ancient times, a high official was making porridge for his sick elder sister. They got plenty of servants, yet the official insisted on cooking and feeding his sister by himself despite his old age. Activities around food among family members always have something special in them, different from that among friends. We care for each other deeply, as we carefully and naturally avoid the food they don’t like; yet in another way, we know they won’t truly blame us if we spoil the food. It is this care for each other and the knowing of mutual care that make the food activity at home so special. In my family, the best banquet we offer to a friend is actually a meal cooked at home. I am happy that my family enjoyed the noodle dinner I prepared.